Friends In High Places

Texas Monthly Executive Editor Paul Burka blogged earlier today about the decision the Texas Supreme Court made in Perry Homes v. Cull that found in favor of Houston-based homebuilder Perry Homes. He includes a lengthy excerpt from Texas Watch about the case:

AUSTIN – The Texas Supreme Court issued a controversial and long-awaited decision in a case involving mega-homebuilder and campaign moneyman Bob Perry today. In Perry Homes v. Cull, the Court sided with Perry in a dispute over shoddy construction, vacating a pro-consumer $800,000 arbitrator decision.
This decision has languished at the high Court for nearly three years. In the meantime, the Court has reached nearly a dozen decisions in which the justices ruled against consumers by upholding an arbitrator’s decision.
Alex Winslow, Executive Director of Texas Watch, released the following statement:
“After years of forcing consumers into a lopsided binding arbitration process, the Court today carved out a special decision for the man who gives the Court more campaign cash than any other individual in the state.
“Since 2000, Mr. Perry and his family have poured over $135,000 into the justices’ campaign coffers. HillCo PAC, which is largely controlled by Perry, has thrown in for another $172,000.
“This decision is little more than a bail out for a major political moneyman, and is the latest in a long line of pro-defendant rulings by our state’s highest court."

While there are at least two commenters at Burka's blog who say that the money doesn't look like it played much of a factor, this is the point at which you fall flat on your face when you try to say that hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations didn't play a role.